Online Blackjack in Irish casinos

Blackjack (or, alternatively, Twenty-one) is the most popular card game in the world. Having appeared first in the United States, the game then spread to casinos in other countries, including Ireland. The point of Blackjack lies in comparing two hands – that of the player and the dealer. The game may seem easy but it has hidden difficulties and requires the use of certain advanced techniques. In this section you will find useful tips, expert advice and other information that will help you to get a better knowledge of different types of Blackjack.

Where to play online blackjack?

Blackjack rules

Blackjack is a card-comparing game. Normally there are only two participants: the gambler and the dealer. Blackjack can also be played with multiple players, but they never play against each other and never cooperate. Their only objective is to win against the dealer.

In Irish online casinos Blackjack is played with one or several decks of 52 cards and is normally played for real money. Both participants are dealt two cards. Players usually have both their cards face up while dealers have one card open and the other closed (the “hole card”). After having been dealt, the gambler should calculate his hand value. Cards from 2 to 10 are calculated by their face value; jacks, queens and kings are worth 10 points and all aces are worth either 1 or 11 points (the gambler may choose which).

Hitting and standing

If the player has relatively small hand values, he may draw additional cards, or “hit”. With more than one player, all players start hitting clockwise, starting to the dealer’s left. In most Irish online casinos players can draw as many cards as they wish, as soon as they do not exceed 21, but in some establishments there are certain restrictions in this regard.

However, players may also prefer to keep the two initial cards (or “stand”). Once all the players are done with their actions (either opted for standing or hitting too many additional cards and busted), it’s time for the dealer to open his hole card.

Results

If the dealer is lucky enough to have a natural blackjack, then he takes no additional cards. In such a case all players lose with the exception of those who also have blackjacks (the so-called “push”, when the gambler and the dealer have the same hand values), and the players get their bets back.

If the dealer has 16 or less points, he must hit until he gets 17 or more points. Once he reaches a number of points from 17 to 21, he stands. In this case the winners are the players who have higher hand values than the dealer. If among these lucky ones there are those who have the same number of points, then natural blackjacks win, and all other gamblers lose. However, if the dealer busts while trying to reach 17 points, then he loses, and all the players who remain in the game (not busted before) win.

Hence, the aim of Blackjack is to win against the dealer in one of the three ways:

The player gets 21 points on his initial hand (without drawing a third card) while the dealer does not reach 21. Such a winning position is called “blackjack” or “natural win”.

Neither the player, nor the dealer reaches 21 points but the player has a better score.

Side rules

We have discussed the general rules of online Blackjack. Dealers must always follow these rules and all his actions are strictly regulated. However, players are lucky enough to be able to apply to the so-called side rules. They enable more interesting playing strategies but can be applied only before the player has taken any card yet.

Here are the most widespread Blackjack side rules in Irish online casinos.

Insurance

If the dealer’s open card is an ace, then each gambler may place a bet on the dealer’s having or not having a blackjack. The decision to take insurance should be taken before any player makes any action.

The insurance wager corresponds to your initial bet and is designed to set off the possible loss of the current bet. If your insurance wins, you will get paid 2:1. Blackjack strategy consultants usually do not recommend opting for insurance.

Surrender

Let’s assume that you have 16 points at hand while the dealer has 10 points. This means that an additional card is rather risky for you while the dealer will most probably get a nice point between 17 and 21 when he opens his hole card.

This can be called a bad playing position which is likely to make you lose. In this case you can use the so-called surrender. That is, you can be restored half your bet under the condition of giving up the hand, thus making your loss two times smaller. However, insurance should be used only if you see big odds of having a losing hand.

Splitting

When your initial hand is comprised of two pair cards, you may opt for splitting your hand in two. You can make your second bet equal to the original one and carry on with not one but two hands.

After the split you will have a single card in each hand, and the dealer will add a second card to each of your hands. Here you can as well have pair cards, and so you may be allowed to split again but certain online Irish casinos do not offer such an opportunity.

Splitting implies that you treat each of your hands separately. That is, you hit to one of the hands until you stand or go busted and then get down to the other hand.

If you take splitting on two aces, you are given a second card to each of the two hands, but then you are not allowed to hit any more (unless you get another ace, and another split can be applied). That is, whenever you split two aces, the corresponding hands will remain two-card only.

It is important that ten-point cards can be split even if they are not equal, meaning that it is allowed to split, for instance, a queen and a king.

Doubling down

Above we described a situation when you hand is likely to be worse than the dealer’s hand. Quite the opposite may also occur, when you will be quite certain that your hand will win against the dealer’s. In such cases the gambler can double his initial bet down. In the majority of casinos you are offered to double down on any of your hands, but some Irish online casinos impose the requirement of an opening hand being worth 11, 10 or 9.

Remember that after you have decided to double down, you can only hit once.

Blackjack gaming strategies

Contrary to what may seem, Blackjack is not about mere luck. There are several gaming strategies listed below, and it is curious that some of them were invented by famous mathematicians. This proves that Blackjack can be regarded as science rather than lottery.

Every Blackjack strategy is a set of rules which you should follow, depending on what card the dealer has, what is your current hand value etc. The basic strategy is to play a hand of any total value against any dealer’s up-card. This will help you to lose the least money in the long term. This strategy is common to almost all Blackjack varieties, with the exceptions applying only in certain situations. Whatever strategy you choose, this you way to get bigger wins on average.